posted on April 6, 2004 03:34:15 PM new
I mailed a package to Japan the 29th with $21.00+ of Endicia postage, affixed the green customs label, dropped it off at the post office counter and today....9 days later, I receive the package back in the mail at my house with a green sticker saying:
Important Customer Information
We regret that your mail is being returned to you because of heightened security measures. All domestic mail, weighing 16 ounces or over, that bears stamps and all international and military APO/FPO mail weighing 16 ounces or over MUST be presented to a retail clerk at a post office. Postage that is affixed to the returned mail may be used for re-mailing the item.
Hello? I did leave it at the counter? I filled out the customs slip? What else could they need me for except to look at me?
oh. And although the package clearly states Air Mail and the customer paid for Air Mail, there is a sticker on it with the "no Airplane" image on it saying Surface Transportation Only.
Is this what happens to our packages after we drop them off at the Post Office? I'm going to go kick some butt in the morning down there.
posted on April 6, 2004 04:04:40 PM new
there is a difference between drop off at the counter and presented to the postal clerk at the counter.
-sig file -------we eat to live,not live to eat.
Benjamin Franklin
posted on April 6, 2004 04:14:43 PM new
I have had that happen before.
One of the clerk usually forgets to stamp it with the post mark.
The main branch rejects them.
One of the other clerks said that they usually catch them when they come back and send them out again.
Just peel off the no airplane sticker and take it back. (My post office does if I don't)
posted on April 6, 2004 04:26:44 PM new
stopwhining..what is the difference other than the fact that I get to stand in line and chat with the clerk? Oh sure, I get to watch him stamp it? The line has been out the door the last few times I've dropped packages off, which is why I was forced to find an alternative to buying postage from the PO.
The other end of the green customs label is gone now.
Why the "no airplane" sticker when they paid for Airmail NOT surface mail?
I've got a bad case of PMS and they should be glad I checked my mailbox after 5 pm today. This is STUPID!
posted on April 6, 2004 04:43:09 PM new
Glass - here is the thiking (I do not call it logic) The unibomber can drop a package off on the counter during a busy day and no one would know, they is no opportunity for the clerk to evaluate you or ask the contents of the package. So yes, the difference is, you have to stand in the line, you have to present it personally, or make a few friends of the clerks that you can run in, ask them and do a quick drop off but make sure they are aware of the need for your international shipment to to be stamped. As for your no airplane sticker - return to unibomber theory.... if this uninspected package from the mystery customer has a bomb or flammable material, they would rather risk a truck when returning it to you, not a plane. When you reship make sure you remove that - it was just added in the return process.
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If it's really "common" sense, why do so few people actually have it?
[ edited by fenix03 on Apr 6, 2004 04:44 PM ]